That Place On The Corner was conceived when my own Son Billy was four and Ginny my business partner had a seven year old and an eight month old. We used to call Carmen, her youngest, “business baby”, as we trawled from meeting to meeting with her in the car-seat, I remember that first meeting with our accountant where Ginny was breastfeeding in his office and I was waxing lyrical about this great idea for a children’s cafe….he thought we were mad, a cafe, with a USP of no unaccompanied adults… and somewhere he was right, Ginny was sleep deprived with a new baby, and I had a job in Sales & marketing for Warners which often had me travelling across Europe and working long hours, for me something had to give, and Ginny was as excited as I was about this concept that we were creating together.

On the home page of our website we say “we’re two local Mums who were brave enough or mad enough to have a good idea and make it happen” that was five years ago, and it’s really taken us this long to work out what our customers really want from us as opposed to what we thought they wanted, the fundamentals are simple, a child centric space that does more than just pay lip service to the “child friendly” tag, we wanted a win win space for parents and their babies and young children, somewhere that was breastfeeding welcome, where parents could meet up, drink good coffee, a light lunch in a clean safe and stimulating environment where the children can crawl and play, a space with bouncy chairs, high chairs, rugs, cushions, toys for imaginative play, dressing up, baby change, etc.

Until you’ve had children you don’t realise how the world changes, when my own Son was newborn I used to go to the baby clinic ( funnily enough it was opposite what is now That Place On The Corner) I’d just moved to the area, I didn’t know anybody and often after baby clinic a group of Mums used to go next door and have coffee together, I used to walk past and hope that someone would call over for me to join them, but new Mums are so absorbed with their precious bundles that they don’t always see the needs of other new Mums, that’s the beauty of the cafe, everybody in there is in the same boat, the space becomes a community space for parents and carers where advice and ideas are shared and friendships are forged, I love it when a new Mum comes in and sits down to feed her baby and have a cuppa and a bit of cake, before long she’s chatting to somebody on another table, and the following week they’re meeting up to do a class together at the cafe or discuss what’s new, this is what we set out to achieve, so it’s great when we see these relationships develop at That Place On The Corner.

We constantly ask our customers for feedback, what do they like about our space, what do they want to see more of, following on recently from a customer survey questionnaire we have augmented our activity timetable to include baby signing and baby massage classes which now run alongside the already popular singing and music classes, often these classes are as much a social event for parents & carers with coffee and cake time after the classes as they are for the little ones development and enjoyment.

We recently had our fifth Birthday and we threw a huge party to celebrate, it was so nice to see some of our customers from when we first opened returning with children that were weaned at the cafe or took their first steps there, now at primary school, and often with younger siblings that are still coming to the cafe.

We’ve been incredibly lucky with the support we’ve received from some fabulous local parents that have really been behind what we are trying to achieve from local artists who have created beautiful murals on our Walls and local theatre and puppet groups who have staged amazing pieces of theatre and workshops in the cafe, to Kate Garraway who used the cafe frequently with both her children and mentioned us in her column and filmed with us for various breakfast TV pieces, to the fabulous Michael Rosen who was so taken with what we were doing that after having his daughter’s Birthday party with us he did an amazing reading of his poems and books, the cafe was heaving, and everybody was mesmerised by this larger than life most charismatic character quoting all the familiar lines from their favourite stories (I was hiding in the kitchen… Totally overwhelmed and honoured).

Ginny and I still work in the cafe every day, we haven’t been able to let go of the reigns yet, and believe that it’s that personal touch that keeps our customers coming back, regular customers are greeted by name, we try to ensure that nothing is too much trouble for us, and we try to preempt what might be needed or a special touch here and there, a glass of water for the breastfeeding Mum, an impromptu cupcake with a candle in it for the Birthday child, babyccinos on tap, and a sticker for those small people who are having so much fun that they don’t want to leave!! Day to day can be tough, but the dream hasn’t changed, a “That Place On The Corner” on every corner in every community.